Cable veteran and former Continental Cablevision Inc. CEO Amos Hostetter has resigned from AT&T Corp.'s board of directors, citing personal reasons.
In a statement, AT&T said Hostetter will be replaced by William F. Aldinger III, chairman and CEO of Household International, a subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc, one of the world's largest financial-services companies.
Hostetter joined the AT&T board in 1999, after the telephone giant purchased MediaOne Group Inc. through its AT&T Broadband subsidiary. Earlier, MediaOne had purchased Continental for $10.8 billion in cash, stock and assumed debt.
After AT&T acquired MediaOne, Hostetter was AT&T's largest individual shareholder with about 53 million shares of its common stock. But after AT&T sold its cable holdings to Comcast Corp. in November, several observers expected Hostetter to resign.
According to securities reports, Hostetter is still AT&T's largest individual shareholder, with 10.7 million shares of its common stock after AT&T initiated a 1-for-5 reverse stock split in November.
"I'd like to thank Amos for his contributions to the board since joining it in 1999. His insight and expertise were invaluable in guiding us though a major restructuring of the company," AT&T chairman David Dorman said in a prepared statement.
